KR20060057008A - Method and system for monitoring communication and monitoring protocol - Google Patents

Abstract

A method, system and monitoring protocol for monitoring of software processes when communications other than network interfaces are used during communication in a mobile telecommunication system. In the invention monitoring data is captured in at least one process and serialized. The monitoring data is then encapsulated to at least one data packet and sent to a monitoring endpoint outside the at least one process. A monitoring tool captures the monitoring data from the monitoring endpoint and processes it further.

Description

METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR MONITORING COMMUNICATION AND MONITORING PROTOCOL}

The present invention relates to a mobile communication system. In particular, the present invention relates to a novel and improved method and system for monitoring a software process when communication other than a network interface is used during communication in a mobile communication system. In addition, monitoring of the protocol is initiated.

Monitoring communication messages between different entities (eg, network elements, computer units, software components, processes, etc.) typically plays an important role in tracking errors in communication network element software. Error tracking through monitoring is especially important when problems occur in live network environments.

There are many tools for monitoring communication between processes. In general, such a tool is based on the idea of capturing transmitted data. Thus, traffic monitoring can be performed at the network interface level. This is the most cost-effective method in terms of avoiding the association of applications to generality and monitoring functions. To solve the network interface level, a powerful and detailed commercial monitoring tool is provided in which data communication using the network interface can be used. Monitoring can be based on, for example, specific IP (Internet Protocol) addresses, ports, protocols and the like.

However, in high performance communication applications, there may be many functions contained within the process (to achieve performance). In addition, the entities within a process can communicate a lot with each other. In order to facilitate development and troubleshooting, it is essential to be able to monitor the flow of intra process communications.

For example, monitoring error tracing and error correction is usually based on debugging, logging, or tracing execution, for example, by console printout or file logging. This means is applicable at development time where real-time execution speed is not an essential requirement. Unfortunately, such measures are not applicable in real-time network environments or for error correction when real-time execution cannot be yielded.

Monitoring of processes that do not use a transport network interface on top of different network protocols is not possible using a monitoring tool based on capturing data at the network interface level. If the communicating parties reside in the same process, more generally, if the communication does not use a network interface (eg, shared memory, UNIX sockets, general purpose memory of the process, etc.) this monitoring approach cannot be used. In this case, message transmission and reception between a process or an entity, for example an object, is not performed at the network interface level at all, and message monitoring cannot be performed using conventional means.

Furthermore, monitoring of instance data of communication objects that are essentially real time is not possible using conventional monitoring software means. Instance data may also refer to a state representing data when, for example, the communication object is a state machine object.

According to one embodiment of the invention, a method is provided for monitoring a software process when communication other than a network interface is used during communication in a mobile communication system. The method includes capturing monitoring data in at least one process, and serializing the monitoring data. Encapsulating the serialized monitoring data into at least one data packet and at least one comprising the serialized monitoring data from the at least one process to a monitoring endpoint external to the at least one process. Transmitting the encapsulated data packet of the.

In one embodiment, the method further comprises capturing the at least one encapsulated data packet sent to the monitoring end with a monitoring application and further resolving the monitoring data from the at least one encapsulated data packet. Step by step.

In one embodiment, the monitoring data is associated with a communication including inter process communication.

In another embodiment, the monitoring data is related to intra process communication.

In one embodiment, the monitoring data comprises the following pieces of information: the state of the at least one process, a transfer message or transfer messages to at least one process, a message received or received from the at least one process. A transmission message or transmission messages from the at least one process to a predetermined receiver, a reception message or messages from a predetermined transmitter in the at least one process, and a message handled by the at least one process Or at least one of the messages. In one embodiment, processed message means received and handled message. Furthermore, the received message means a message that has not yet been processed.

In one embodiment, the capturing comprises capturing monitoring data of at least one object of the at least one process. The monitoring data may comprise the following pieces of information: the state of the at least one object, the instance data of the at least one object, the transmission message or messages to the at least one object, the received message at the at least one object or Messages, messages or messages sent from the at least one object to a predetermined receiver, messages or messages received from a predetermined transmitter at the at least one object, and messages processed by the at least one object or It may mean at least one of the messages.

In one embodiment, the serializing step includes serializing the monitoring data using a definition language. The serializing step includes, for example, defining the monitoring data using a definition language or serializing the monitoring data using serialization code generated from the definition language. The definition language is, for example, an Object Management Group (OMG) Interface Definition Language.

In one embodiment, after serializing the monitoring data, the method further comprises encoding the monitoring data according to a monitoring protocol. The monitoring data may be encoded according to, for example, the General Inter Object Request Broker Protocol.

In one embodiment, the encoding of the monitoring data according to the inter-object request broker protocol transfers an object key and an action field of the request broker protocol request header of the inter-object object in the inter-object request broker protocol packet, and the monitoring data. Reusing a general purpose inter-object request broker protocol request body.

According to a second embodiment of the invention, a monitoring protocol for delivering monitoring data of a process of a mobile communication system is provided, wherein the monitoring protocol packet comprises at least an identifier field, a message size field, a message identifier field, A protocol header comprising an information size field and an information field, and a monitoring body containing monitoring payload data.

In one embodiment, the monitoring body includes monitoring data as a serialized byte stream. The serialized byte stream can be serialized using a definition language such as, for example, an interface definition language.

According to a third embodiment of the invention, there is provided a system for monitoring a software process when communication other than a network interface is used during communication in a mobile communication system, wherein the system captures monitoring data in at least one process. Capturing means, serializing means for serializing the monitoring data, encapsulating means for encapsulating the serialized monitoring data into at least one data packet, and from the at least one process to a monitoring end outside the at least one process. Means for transmitting at least one encapsulated data packet comprising said serialized monitoring data.

In one embodiment, the system comprises capturing means for capturing at least one encapsulated data packet sent to the monitoring end as a monitoring application and decomposing means for decomposing the monitoring data from the at least one encapsulated data packet. It further includes.

In one embodiment, the monitoring data relates to communication including interprocess communication.

In another embodiment, the monitoring data relates to communication including in-process communication.

In one embodiment, the monitoring data is a message or messages sent to the at least one process, messages or messages received in the at least one process, the next informational state fragments of the at least one process, the at least At least one of a message or messages sent from one process to a predetermined receiver, a message or messages received from a predetermined transmitter in the at least one process, and a message or messages processed by the at least one process it means.

In one embodiment, the capturing means is configured to capture monitoring data of at least one object of the at least one process.

In one embodiment, the monitoring data is instance data of the at least one object, a message or messages sent to the at least one object, the at least one object being subsequent informational state fragments of the at least one object. A message or messages received, a message or messages sent from the at least one object to a predetermined receiver, a message or messages received from a predetermined transmitter at the at least one object, and processed by the at least one object It means at least one of the message or messages.

In one embodiment, the serialization means is configured to serialize the monitoring data using a definition language such as, for example, an interface definition language.

In one embodiment, the system further comprises encoding means for encoding the monitoring data according to a monitoring protocol. The encoding means may be configured to encode the monitoring data according to a universal inter-object request broker protocol. The encoding means is a universal inter-object request broker protocol data header of a universal inter-object request broker protocol data packet and a universal inter-object request that reuses an object key and an action key field of the request broker protocol request body that carries the monitoring data. It may be configured to encode the monitoring data according to a broker protocol.

The present invention has various advantages over the prior art solutions. The present invention enables real time error tracking and troubleshooting. Furthermore, the present invention provides a solution capable of monitoring communication when the network interface is not used as a transport interface. If the monitoring function is executed using a specific library function, the messaging library encapsulates the communication related to monitoring from the application containing the monitored process or object and thus is transparent to the application. (transparent) Supports message monitoring.

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, to provide a further understanding of the invention, illustrate embodiments of the invention, and together with the embodiments help explain the principles of the invention.

1A illustrates monitoring communication between different processes in accordance with the present invention,

1B illustrates monitoring communication between different objects in a process in accordance with the present invention,

2 shows a message structure of a universal inter-ORB protocol (GIOP) message used when conveying monitoring information in accordance with the present invention;

3 shows the message structure of a monitoring protocol message used when conveying monitoring information in accordance with the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION Reference will now be made in detail to embodiments of the invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings.

1A illustrates an embodiment of the present invention in which communication between two processes 10, 12 is monitored. Monitoring data is sent to the monitoring end 14. The monitoring end 14 means, for example, a predefined IP (Internet Protocol) address, port, or the like. The term 'monitoring end' may also refer to a file or shared memory segment, for example, where monitoring data is recorded and a monitoring tool can read the monitoring data. An application comprising processes 10 and 12 simultaneously comprises a plurality of monitoring end s; Dedicated dedicated ends may be opened (see FIG. 1B). The monitoring tool 16 then attaches itself to the monitoring end 14 and captures the data sent to that end. The monitoring tool 16 may be a commercially available monitoring tool such as Ethereous or a dedicated monitoring tool. Ethereal is a network protocol analyzer that can examine data from live networks or data from capture files on disk. Using Ethereal, you can browse the captured data and view summary and detailed information for each packet.

Although not disclosed in FIG. 1A, processes 10 and 12 may include one or more objects that perform actual communication with other process objects.

Processes 10 and 12 in FIG. 1A do not use a network interface for software communication but use, for example, shared memory, Unix sockets, and the like. In one embodiment of FIG. 1A, the monitoring message is defined using a definition language such as, for example, a common object request broker architecture (CORBA) interface definition language (IDL). If a definition language is used, plug-ins (for monitoring tools) can be generated based on IDL. The generated plug-in may decode the encoded monitoring data. Thus, for example, a CORBA IDL compiler, for which a serialization routine has been generated, can be used to encode a general inter-ORB protocol (GIOP) packet. For other message types, for example messages defined as C ++ classes, the application designer must write a serialization routine for the message. The monitoring data is transmitted as GIOP data encoded on top of a user data protocol (UDP). As another basic protocol, any other dedicated protocol may be used, such as the Internet Protocol (IP).

1B illustrates an embodiment of the invention in which communication between software objects is monitored. 1B shows a process 18 that includes a number of software objects 28-38. Communication between each pair of objects is monitored and monitoring data is sent to the monitoring end. In FIG. 1B, monitoring data related to communication between objects 32 and 34 is sent to monitoring end 24. Monitoring ends 20-24 refer to, for example, predefined IP (Internet Protocol) addresses, ports, and the like. Thereafter, the monitoring tool 26 attaches itself to the monitoring ends 20-24 and captures the data sent to the ends. The monitoring tool 26 may be a commercially available monitoring tool such as Ethereal or a dedicated monitoring tool, for example.

In the embodiment of FIG. 1B, the monitoring message is defined using a definition language such as, for example, Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) Interface Definition Salmon (IDL). If a definition language is used, plug-ins (for monitoring tools) can be created based on IDL. The generated plug-in may decode the encoded monitoring data. Thus, for example, a CORBA IDL compiler, for which a serialization routine has been generated, can be used to encode a general inter-ORB protocol (GIOP) packet. For other types of messages, for example messages defined as C ++ classes, application designers must write serialization routines for the messages. The monitoring data is transmitted as GIOP data encoded on top of the User Data Protocol (UDP). As the basic protocol, any other suitable protocol may be used, for example Internet Protocol (IP).

The solution disclosed in FIGS. 1A and 1B enables a very efficient method of monitoring communication between processes or objects. The monitoring information may be for example a message or messages sent to the process, a message or messages received in the process, a message or messages sent from the process to a predetermined receiver, a message received from the transmitter predetermined in the process Or messages or messages or messages processed by the process. In addition, monitoring may be associated with the status of the process. If monitoring applies to communication between objects, the monitoring information may be for example a message or messages sent to the object, a message or messages received at the object, a message or messages sent from the object to a predetermined receiver The message or messages received from a predetermined transmitter in the object or the message or messages processed by the object. In addition, monitoring may be associated with the state of the object. In addition, the monitoring information may be related to the state of the object or the instance data of the object. In practice, communication between processes generally means the same as communication between objects of one process or between objects of different processes. The process can be in the same computer unit. In the alternative, the process may be distributed to different computer units.

In one embodiment of FIGS. 1A and 1B, the monitoring function is performed using specific library functions. Thus, the system may include, for example, a universal messaging interface (e.g., ReceiveMessage, SendMesage), in which the transmission of monitoring data to the monitoring channel (end) as well as the initialization (opening) of the channel, depending on the interface, is transmitted to the application. Can be transparent. The messaging library encapsulates monitoring associated communication from the application, thus providing support for transparent message monitoring to the application. Application herein refers to an application that includes a monitored process or object.

In addition, the library function enables the definition and definitions of rules that determine, for example, which messages, objects and processes to be monitored.

2 shows a message structure of a GIOP message used when conveying monitoring information. The message structure of the basic universal inter-ORB protocol (GIOP) includes a GIOP header, a GIOP request header, and a GIOP request body. The GIOP request body means payload information in which monitoring data is a serialized byte stream.

The 12-byte GIOP header is formed as described as follows:

Magic: always includes the character GIOP. This indicates that the message is a GIOP message.

Version: The major and minor version number of the GIOP protocol version in use, for example 1.1.

Flag: bits 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0, where,

Bit 0

0: big endian encoding for the rest of the message.

1: little endian encoding for the rest of the message.

Bit 1

The message is a fragment message with more to follow.

The message is a complete message or a last message in the sequence of fragments.

Another bit is reserved for future use.

Message type:

Indicates the message format type following the GIOP header

0: Request; 1: Reply; 2: Cancel Request; 3: request location (LocateRequest); 4: response location (LocateReply); 5: CloseConnection; 6: message error; 7: Fragment.

The present invention can use a value of 0 (requirement).

Message size: The size of the rest of the message (except the 12-byte GIOP header). The value is encoded in big or little endian as indicated by 0 bits of the flag byte.

The GIOP header has a variable length. In the following, only the fields of the appropriate GIOP request header, i.

Object key: For monitoring purposes according to the invention, this field is used to convey additional monitoring information. The form of the field may be as follows, for example.

-XXXX <event> from hh: mm: ss to YYYY, where:

XXXX = message identifier

Event = receive or process

YYYY = receiver identifier

-XXXX sent from ZZZZ to YYYY, where:

XXXX = message identifier

YYYY = receiver identifier

ZZZZ = transmitter identifier

-Or for instance data: instance data from XXXX in hh: mm: ss,

XXXX = identifier of the instance data owner

Operation: The name of the message / action. When monitoring, this field is used to select the correct plug-in in the monitoring tool.

3 shows an example of a message structure of a monitoring protocol message that can be used when transferring monitoring information according to the present invention instead of GIOP. The message structure includes a monitoring protocol header and a monitoring body. The monitoring body refers to payload information in which monitoring data is a serialized byte stream.

The n-byte monitoring protocol header is formed as described below:

Magic: the identifier of the protocol. Length n bytes.

Message size: The total size of the message. 4 bytes in length.

Message ID: 4 to 8 byte identifier for the monitored message. This field is used by the monitoring tool to select the correct plug-in.

Information size: the length of the next freeform information text.

Information: Freeform infotext. For monitoring purposes according to the invention, this field is used to convey additional monitoring information. The format of the field may be, for example, XXXX <event> from hh: mm: ss to YYYY, where:

XXXX = message identifier

Event = send or receive

YYYY = receiver identifier, for example, a process identifier.

The monitoring protocol described is more efficient than when GIOP is used to convey monitoring data.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that, with advances in technology, the basic idea of the invention may be implemented in a variety of ways. Therefore, the present invention and its embodiments are not limited to the above-described embodiments, but rather may be changed within the scope of the claims.

Claims (28)

A method of monitoring software processes when communication other than network interfaces is used during communication of software processes in a mobile communication system, Capturing monitoring data in at least one process; Serializing the monitored data; Encapsulating the serialized monitoring data into at least one data packet; Transmitting at least one encapsulated data packet comprising said serialized monitoring data from said at least one process to a monitoring end outside said at least one process. The method of claim 1, Capturing at least one encapsulated data packet sent to the monitoring end as a monitoring application; Decomposing the monitoring data from the at least one encapsulated data packet. The method of claim 1, Monitoring data related to communication including interprocess communication. The method of claim 1, Monitoring data relating to communications including in-process communications. The method of claim 1, The capturing step includes the following pieces of information: State of the at least one process; A send message or messages to said at least one process; The message or messages received in the at least one process; A message or messages sent from the at least one process to a predetermined receiver; A message or messages received from a predetermined transmitter in the at least one process; The message or messages processed by the at least one process, Capturing the monitoring data by referring to at least one of the following. The method of claim 1, And said capturing step comprises capturing monitoring data of at least one object of said at least one process. The method of claim 6, The capturing step includes the following pieces of information: A state of the at least one object; Instance data of the at least one object; A message or messages sent to the at least one object; A message or messages received at the at least one object; A message or messages sent from the at least one object to a predetermined receiver; A message or messages received from a predetermined transmitter at the at least one object; The message or messages processed by the at least one object, Capturing the monitoring data by referring to at least one of the following. The method of claim 1, Wherein said serializing comprises serializing said monitoring data using a definition language. The method of claim 8, Wherein said serializing step comprises serializing using a definition language comprising an interface definition language. The method of claim 1, After serializing the monitoring data, further comprising encoding the monitoring data according to a monitoring protocol. The method of claim 10, And wherein said encoding step comprises encoding said monitoring data according to a universal inter-object request broker protocol. The method of claim 11, Encoding monitoring data according to the universal inter-object request broker protocol may include: And reusing an object key and an action key field of the universal inter-object request broker protocol request body carrying the inter-object request broker protocol data packet and the monitoring data. Monitoring method. A monitoring protocol for carrying monitoring data of processes of a mobile communication system, the monitoring protocol packet comprising at least: a monitoring protocol header comprising an identifier field, a message size field, a message identifier field, an information size field and an information field of a protocol used; A monitoring protocol comprising a monitoring body containing monitoring payload data. The method of claim 13, And said monitoring body comprises monitoring data as a serialized byte stream. The method of claim 14, The serialized byte stream is serialized using a definition language. The method of claim 15, And the definition language comprises an interface definition language. A system for monitoring software processes when communication other than network interfaces is used during communication of software processes in a mobile communication system, Capturing means for capturing monitoring data in at least one process; Serialization means for serializing the monitoring data; Encapsulation means for encapsulating the serialized monitoring data into at least one data packet; And transmission means for transmitting at least one encapsulated data packet comprising said serialized monitoring data from said at least one process to a monitoring end outside said at least one process. The method of claim 17, Capturing means for capturing said at least one encapsulated data sent to said monitoring end as a monitoring application; And means for decomposing the monitoring data from the at least one encapsulated data packet. The method of claim 17, And said monitoring data relates to a communication comprising interprocess communication. The method of claim 17, And said monitoring data relates to a communication comprising in-process communication. The method of claim 17, The monitoring data includes the following pieces of information: The at least one process state; The message or messages sent to the at least one process; The message or messages received in the at least one process; The message or messages sent from the at least one process to a predetermined receiver; A message or messages received from a predetermined transmitter in the at least one process; The message or messages processed by the at least one process, Monitoring system, characterized in that at least one of. The method of claim 17, The capturing means is configured to capture monitoring data of at least one object of the at least one process. The method of claim 22, The monitoring data includes the following pieces of information: A state of the at least one object; Instance data of the at least one object; A message or messages sent to the at least one object; A message or messages received at the at least one object; A message or messages sent from the at least one object to a predetermined receiver; A message or messages received from a predetermined transmitter at the at least one object; The message or messages processed by the at least one object, Monitoring system, characterized in that at least one of. The method of claim 17, And said serializing means is configured to serialize said monitoring data using a definition language. The method of claim 24, And the definition language comprises an interface definition language. The method of claim 17, And means for encoding said monitoring data according to a monitoring protocol. The method of claim 26, And said encoding means is configured to encode said monitoring data according to a universal inter-object request broker protocol. The method of claim 27, The encoding means is a universal inter-object request broker protocol data header of a universal inter-object request broker protocol data packet and a universal inter-object request that reuses an object key and an action key field of the request broker protocol request body that carries the monitoring data. A monitoring system configured to encode the monitoring data according to a broker protocol.

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